#william pratt

[randomscreensjots]

This episode was gold

[spikedaily]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER | 5.20

[paperpuzzles]

[youhavethesun]

hope he’s enjoying his night off (happy halloween!!)

[thequeenofsastiel]

I can't BELIEVE I never noticed that Spike only started calling Buffy "Buffy" to her face AFTER he realized he was in love with her, EXCEPT for ONCE in the episode in which he realized he was in love with her, in the very last scene they shared before he realized. He always called her "Slayer", or some insulting/patronizing nickname, or occasionally by her last name.

And honestly the fact that he started calling her "Buffy" very much should have given her pause. It actually sort of did in the first scene they shared post-epiphany. She called him "William" in this deeply sarcastic tone, like she thought him calling her "Buffy" was meant to be some sort of jibe.

Did I go back and rewatch every single interaction they had in the entire series before he had that dream just to make sure I was right once that thought occurred to me? The world will never know.

[selkiemaidenfae]

getting into buffy late in the game is so wild beacuse like... what do you mean angel was the favorite love interest?? what do you mean he's supposed to be buffy's true love, supported by the cast, crew and promo materials??

him??

over spike, who's better for buffy in basically every way??

like, 2000s baby here, but before my friend encouraged me to start watching buffy, pretty much all i knew about the show was "vampire show with the lesbian witches and that rlly popular enemies-to-lovers ship"

but now i'm looking at merch and magazines from that time, and angel is the guy everyone loves?? joss whedon gave us HIM

and thought we wouldn't fall in love?? thought we'd go for angel, who has the most clear ~first love interest who either dies or becomes evil to make way for the better love interest~ i've ever seen in my life??

absolutely wild.

[bertolts]

“ ℝ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕒𝕣𝕖, 𝕃𝕦𝕧! 𝕀 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕟’𝕥 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕕. ℕ𝕠𝕥 𝕒 𝕝𝕚𝕔𝕜! “ Spike • BTVS S7E2

[angelic-chu]

Buffy the series is chock full of parallels . I noticed one on spike that I don’t entirely know the significance of but , it is a parallel I think about constantly.

[greensaplinggrace]

honestly what i find most valuable about buffy's relationship with spike is that there is absolutely nobody else that could have followed her through the melting point restructuring phoenix fire ruination and rebirth of her entire life and come out the stronger for it with a bond forged of unbreakable steel except for him. i cannot imagine either angel or riley even coming close to surviving that process. they'd have burned and melted away completely before they ever reached the quenching.

[trash-and-trash-accessories]

I love Spike so much. He's the most character of all time. But it's more than that. He's more than bleached hair, a pretty face, and bloodlust. He makes sense. The character makes sense.

He's William. He's still, despite it all, William Pratt, the god-awful poet and pathetic wet cat of a man under the thumb of mommy his whole life. He just wants to be loved and held and to satiate his unending bloodlust. He's not the big bad. He's pathetic.

He's burnt out on all the plots and schemes. Plots and schemes are Angel's thing. Serving some grand evil purpose is Darla's thing. Cruelty is Drusilla's thing. William Pratt is a poet and a mama's boy who just wants a strong woman to love him and tell him what to do. He's tired. He's so tired of the plots and schemes.

Sure, he knows how to have a good time, he plays kitten poker and sells demon eggs to the highest bidder but that's a matter of making money or hanging out with friends. It's not what he WANTS. The only thing he wants is to be loved by someone who loves him back. The problem is, he's toxic and obsessive. He doesn't fall in love. He becomes consumed. His whole world revolves around the object of his obsession. So when he's with Drusilla, he's the big bad evil guy doing schemes. Trying to impress her with extreme violence and death. Because that's what Drusilla is into. Torture and death. She's Catholic. And a vampire.

He also tries to impress Angel by killing Slayers because Angel is into Slayers and Angel and Spike canonically slept together don't at me. This man is bisexual.

When he's with Buffy he's a loyal dog. A bad boy, a part of the demonic world, but a dog nonetheless. He's a soulless monster but his obsession with Buffy turns him into one of the good guys. It's not natural for him. He feels it happening and he fights against it, but he's madly in love with her and he will be and do whatever it takes to impress her and make her love him back. He's obsessive.

He knows it, and he doesn't like that side of himself. He doesn't like that he's a pathetic dog. Sometimes he pushes against that side of himself. He tries to be a good person, for real. Not just a pathetic stalker of a man.

But he can't fight it. He is what he is.

And unfortunately that is a soulless vampire.

Hence that one scene that I pretend didn't happen.

But despite being definitionally evil, he can't stop being consumed the person he's obsessed with. Buffy wants him to have a soul. She wants him to not be the monster he is. So he rips William Pratt from his grave and resurrects him for her. He goes through hell to put his soul back inside his body for her. It takes her a long time to accept him again after what he did.

But he's the good boy now. He's a good dog.

Only she doesn't see him that way. In the end, he has her trust. Her love. She cares about him and sees him as her equal. As someone she can trust. She can't trust her friends because they're messy and constantly fucking up and betraying her because they don't understand what it is to be The Slayer. To have a human body and a human soul, with demonic power inside, and the divine mandate to sacrifice yourself for others, to save the world. No matter what that does to you.

Spike has a human soul, a demon inside him, trauma, and a divine mission to save the world. To sacrifice himself for everyone.

Spike is the only one who understands Buffy, and maybe the only one who ever will.

He's the perfect culmination of all her other relationships.

He fucks. Unlike Angel, Spike can fuck. He can experience joy alongside her.

He respects her strength and isn't emasculated or intimidated by the fact that she's stronger than him. He loves that she defeated a god. Unlike fucking Riley.

He's lived lifetimes worth of traumatic experiences. But he isn't currently experiencing an ongoing mental health crisis like Faith was.

And he likes poetry!

They even have the same ex boyfriend!

In conclusion He and Buffy are both the most character of all time and the narrative's favorites and therefore they are both perfect for each other and have the potential to be extremely toxic together and I'm so happy for them, I hope she pegs him, I know he would love that.

[cooolmonsterfighter]

"Blond Ambition" interview with James Marsters

From the Official Buffy the Vampire Slayer Magazine #8, June 2003

[randomscreensjots]

Spike is easily the most interesting guy in BTVS

[wtv-my-current-hyperfixation]

Hyper fixated on Spike from btvs awhile ago and finally finished this drawing! Don’t know how I feel about it lol

[paperpuzzles]

[thepunkmuppet]

I’ve hired myself out as an attraction.

Side-show freak?

Well. At least it’s showbiz!

↳ James Marsters as Spike - BTVS 4x22 “Restless”

[thequeenofsastiel]

"You faced the monster inside of you, and you fought back."

That quote always brings me to tears. Because it's so true. It's an acknowledgement that Soulless Spike was more than just the demon that possessed him when he died. William remained. Suppressed and controlled by the vampire soul inside of him, but still there. And when that trace of who he had been as a human fell in love with Buffy, it grew stronger and stronger and stronger. And being surrounded by good people increased it even more. Especially the love he grew to have for Dawn as well, because I absolutely believe that he loved her too, and the fact that it was a paternal love rather than a romantic love was, I think, helpful on an even deeper level. Spike was surrounded by love, and that bit of William that remained was bolstered so much by that love that it grew stronger than his vampire soul. He faced the monster inside of him, and he fought back. And he fucking won.